Fireworks Truck Explodes on Bridge in China
By CHRIS BUCKLEY
China Daily, via Reuters
Rescuers worked at the scene of a bridge collapse in Henan Province on Friday.
A truck laden with fireworks exploded on a bridge in central China on
Friday, sending out a blast that threw vehicles about 30 yards to the
ground below.
China Daily, via Reuters
Rescuers worked at the scene of a bridge collapse in Henan Province on Friday.
By CHRIS BUCKLEY
Published: February 1, 2013
HONG KONG — A truck laden with fireworks exploded on an elevated expressway in central China
on Friday, unleashing a blast that threw vehicles 30 yards to the
ground below and killing at least nine people, state news reports said.
Reuters
A section of a bridge that partially collapsed after a
truck carrying fireworks exploded in Henan Province on Friday.
The truck was on an expressway near Sanmenxia in Henan Province in
morning fog when the truck erupted, causing an 87-yard section of the
Yichang Bridge to collapse, according to the Web site of Dahe Daily,
a newspaper in Henan, which quoted rescue officials at the site.
Earlier, officials had raised the possibility that a bridge collapse set
off the explosion.
Fireworks are a tradition of China’s traditional Lunar New Year
celebrations, which begin on Feb. 9, and the explosion was a reminder of
the dangers brought by the crush of people and goods on the move before
the holiday.
China Central Television reported
that one eyewitness injured in the accident said that because of an
earlier accident before the explosion, traffic had been snarled on the
expressway and a number of vehicles had crashed into one another.
The deadly accident may also rekindle questions about China’s
transportation infrastructure, which has expanded at a heady pace in
recent years. In August, a 330-foot-long ramp section of a bridge in the
northeast collapsed 100 feet to the ground,
taking four trucks with it, resulting in three deaths. That was the
sixth major bridge in China to collapse since July 2011, according to a
Xinhua report at the time.
None of the reports about the latest bridge accident raised questions
about the quality of construction. One initial news report said at least
26 people were killed, but officials on the scene later dismissed that
number as too high, according to the Web site of People’s Daily, which
said about 11 people were injured.
Images on Chinese television and news Web sites showed rescuers
clambering over the shattered remains of trucks that had plunged to
earth, with part of one truck hanging off the severed section of the
bridge. Reports from the scene said 10 to 25 vehicles fell off the
bridge.
“A number of vehicles were crushed under the fallen bridge section,
adding to the difficulties of the rescuers,” said a report on China
Central Television.
After the explosion, the Ministry of Public Security convened a video
conference with police officials across the country, urging them to
tighten controls on the production and transportation of fireworks,
according to the Web site of Legal Daily, a state-run newspaper. COPY http://global.nytimes.com/
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